December 23rd means it’s Festivus and — as is tradition — Festivus begins with the Airing of Grievances. I got some good responses on Twitter that I’ll share below but also will give you my list of grievances. As Frank Costanza says “I got a lotta problems with you people, and you’re going to hear about it!” I’ll also give you my Feats of Strength from the non-conference schedule and maybe there will be a Festivus miracle to finish things off.
Joe Lunardi released an updated bracket on December 8thand followed that up with an edition of Bracket Math on December 15th. On December 21st, Lunardi released his most detailed version of Bracket Math, to date. He has all 68 teams seeded, including all the 1-bid league conference leaders and a total of 80 teams on his seed list. Lunardi continues to have 5 Big East teams in his field of 68, with Xavier, Butler, Villanova and Georgetown making the biggest moves of anyone in the league. Xavier and Butler made positive move, while Villanova and Georgetown slid down the seed list.
This Thoughts from the Road: Couch Edition is brought to you from the very comfortable blue couch at my parent’s house. It was powered by a chicken parm from Rustica and aided by the company of my mom and Declan. With Big East play on the horizon, I am planning to have some more actual Thoughts from the Road that involve me driving to Providence and attending games in person. Stay tuned in 2016.
Kris Dunn returned to the court against UMass and he didn’t leave any clues that he hadn’t played in a game since December 9th. Dunn stuffed the stat sheet with 14 points, 11 assists and 6 rebounds in 24 minutes of action. Dunn got to the rim with ease, made a pair of 3-pointers and had a few highlight reel plays.
Ben Bentil had a big game as I predicted. Bentil set a new career high with 32 points, while notching his 3rd double-double of the season with 11 rebounds. He also had 2 vicious blocks. Bentil was very efficient shooting from the field and free throw line. He went 11/16 from the field, including 3/5 from 3-point range. He was also 7/9 from the line. Bentil’s 32 matches Dunn’s 32 from the season opener for the season high by a single Friar.
Jalen Lindsey scored the first 6 points of the night on two 3-pointers and would sink another from downtown. He also had another strong rebounding game with 8 boards.
Junior Lomomba had a very nice game with 11 points and 6 assists and he did a pretty god job guarding UMass’ high-scoring guards.
Rodney Bullock struggled with foul trouble and only played 5 minutes in the first half and didn’t score. Bullock did some scoring in the second half but he wasn’t really needed tonight. He finished with 8 points and 6 rebounds.
The Friars finish out the non-conference at 12-1, which is a great start to the season. They have a win over #8 Arizona on their non-conference resume and their only loss is to #1 Michigan State. Not a bad start for Ed Cooley’s bunch.
The 12-1 and 10th ranked Friars return to action next Thursday on the road as they open the Big East schedule at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse to take on the 9th ranked Butler Bulldogs on New Year’s Eve. That game tips at 2:30pm EST and is on CBSSN.
Ben Bentil has landed on the Big East’s Weekly Honor Roll of players that had good weeks, but not good enough to be the Player of the Week. That honor goes to a Butler Bulldog for the third straight week with Roosevelt Jones being named this week’s Big East Player of the Week after his 19 point and 11 rebound effort against then 9th ranked Purdue helped Butler to the win.
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